Brief History of the Cigarette Packet Collectors Club of Great Britain

Whilst this Club is now well known amongst cigarette card collectors and also many other collecting clubs, not many people know the origins. A brief history taken from the original text by our late Chairman, Nat Chait, tells how he had started a club that was his lifetime's work.

It all really started when he was approached by a Mr. Robin Ellis of Ventura Publishing Ltd back in 1978. He explained that his company wanted to produce a book covering packaging from the early days of cigarettes right up to the present time and any help he could give would be most welcome. Nat, having always been in the tobacco trade, as well as being a collector of cigarette cards and cigarette packets, he was indeed able to help, plus having the knowledge of the many manufacturers past and present.

So without going into the lengthy story about the make up of the book which is called "Cigarette Pack Art" by Chris Mullen, he felt that if a publisher considered there was enough collectors around he would form a club. During the autumn of 1979 Nat held a meeting of the leading collectors in the country at his home, where they formed a club just for cigarette packet collectors. Nat decided that to be a success the club must have a magazine, so he produced one. The first issue was 'spring 1980' and continues to be printed every quarter. It was originally produced in black and white, issue number 36 onwards it appeared in colour.

The picture to the right shows Nat standing outside his pipe shop circa 1990s